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YOU ARE IN » Home page > News and information main menu > Graduate Market Trends > What do minority ethnic graduates do (Aut 08)

What do minority ethnic graduates do - three year comparison (Autumn 08)

• Summary
• Introduction
• Higher growth amongst ethnic minority students
• Destination trends six months after graduation
• Types of work
• Graduate-level employment
• Conclusion
• Further information
• Reference

Summary

In this article, Pearl Mok from the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) looks at destinations by ethnic groups, for graduates from 2003/04 – 2005/06. Although unemployment went up for some minority ethnic graduates during this three-year period, almost all groups saw an increase in employment in graduate-level jobs. There were also signs that minority ethnic graduates were becoming more successful in entering management level occupations.

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Introduction

In the Spring 08 issue of Graduate Market Trends, we reported on graduates’ regional employment between 2003/04 and 2005/06 [1]. In this article, we compare the outcomes of full-time first degree UK-domiciled graduates by ethnicity for these three years, using data from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

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Higher growth amongst ethnic minority students

During the period of study, the total number of full time first degree graduates domiciled in the UK rose by 4.8%, but the number of graduates from a minority ethnic background saw a much larger increase of 14.2%. In 2005/06, minority ethnic graduates accounted for 15.2% of UK-domiciled full-time graduates, compared with 14% in 2003/04.

Table 1 shows the ethnicity breakdown of graduates in 2005/06, together with the changes in numbers between 2003/04 and 2005/06.

During this period, Black African and ‘other (including mixed)’ graduates saw the highest percentage rises of 39.9% and 29.2% respectively. Asian Bangladeshi graduates also recorded a healthy 17% increase in numbers, albeit from a low base. Black Caribbean and Asian Pakistani graduates were another two groups with double-digit percentage growth. ‘Other Black background’, the smallest of all ethnic groups with just 640 graduates from 2006, was the only group which had fewer graduates in 2005/06 than in 2003/04.

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Destination trends six months after graduation

Unemployment amongst first degree full-time graduates was relatively stable during the period of study: at 6.5% (for 2003/04), 6.6% (2004/05) and 6.4% (2005/06). Several ethnic groups, however, had higher unemployment in 2005/06 than in 2003/04, including Black African, Asian Pakistani, Asian Bangladeshi and Chinese graduates (see Figure 1).

All minority ethnic groups also had higher unemployment than White graduates. In 2005/06, only 5.7% of Whites graduates were out of work six months after graduation, compared with 13.3% of Black African, 12.6% of Asian Bangladeshi, 12.3% of Asian Pakistani and 11.6% of Chinese graduates, whilst Asian Indian graduates fared better with unemployment at 8.3%

Just over half of White graduates (56.2%) and British Indian graduates (52%) were in full-time paid employment six months after graduation in 2005/06, and these figures have hardly changed in the three-year period. Although White graduates had the highest full-time employment rates, Black Caribbean graduates were the most likely to be in part-time paid employment, thus boosting their overall employment rates to that on a par with White graduates: 65.5% of full-time first degree Black Caribbean graduates were in employment (including full-time and part-time paid work and voluntary work) in 2005/06 compared with 65.2% of White graduates.

Although Chinese graduates saw unemployment increase from 10.7% in 2003/04 to 11.6% in 2005/06, their overall employment rates also went up by two percentage points from 51.9% to 53.9%, mainly due to the rise in part-time employment. Graduates from ‘other Asian background’ and ‘other (including mixed)’ ethnic groups, especially the latter, also showed higher employment rates in 2005/06 than in 2003/04. During this period, full-time employment rate for other (including mixed) graduates rose from 47.4% to 50.1% whilst part-time employment rate rose from 8% to 8.6% - the biggest increase amongst all ethnic groups.

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Types of work

The health profession is one of the most important graduate employment areas, especially for minority ethnic graduates. One in five Asian Indian and Asian Pakistani full-time first degree graduates working in the UK six months after graduation were employed as health professionals (eg doctors) or associate professionals (eg nurses), compared with one in ten White graduates. The percentages of graduates from these groups, as well as Chinese graduates, working in the health area also went up during the three-year period.

There were just under 1,500 more graduates working as business and financial professionals in 2005/06 compared with in 2003/04, with many minority ethnic groups seeing an increase in numbers, although some of these were from a very low base so the rise in numbers were actually very small.

In 2005/06, one in seven (14.1%) Asian Indian graduates working in the UK were employed in business and financial occupations compared with one in eight (12.1%) in 2003/04. Black African graduates also saw increases from 6% to 9.3%, Chinese graduates from 10.7% to 14% and other Asian graduates from 8.4% to 11.6%.

There were fewer graduates overall entering management occupations in the commercial, industrial or public sectors in 2005/06 than in 2003/04, and this has affected White graduates in particular which saw numbers down by 3.4% (350 graduates). Some other ethnic groups, however, revealed increasing numbers despite this overall downturn. For example, there were rises of over 30% in the numbers of Black African and other (including mixed) graduates entering these types of work and although this only translates to a small rise in actual numbers of graduates (40 and 65 respectively), it was a sign that minority ethnic graduates were continuing to gain success in securing employment in these areas.

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Graduate-level employment

Using the graduate job classifications developed by Professors Peter Elias and Kate Purcell for their study Seven Years On: Graduates in the Changing Labour Market, the types of work that new graduates went into over the three-year period were analysed to see whether there had been any changes in the percentages of graduates going into graduate- and non-graduate level occupations [2].

In 2003/04, three in five (59%) White graduates were employed in graduate-level occupations six months after graduating, rising to 62.6% in 2005/06. For Asian Indian graduates, this rose from 60.5% to 65.5% and for graduates from other Asian background, from 63.9% to 66.4%. Traditional graduate occupations, such as doctors, are especially popular amongst these graduates, accounting for a quarter of graduates from these groups working in the UK in 2005/06.

The largest rise in the percentages entering graduate-level occupations, however, was Chinese graduates, from 56.1% in 2003/04 to 64.4% in 2005/06. Other ethnic groups showing large increases include ‘other (including mixed)’ (from 56.8% to 62.3%) and Black African (from 56.8% to 61.7%) graduates.

Black Caribbean graduates was the only group which saw a slight decrease in graduate-level employment during this period: from 53.5% in 2003/04 to 52.2% in 2005/06.

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Conclusion

The labour market was relatively stable between 2003/04 and 2005/06, but there were wider variations in outcomes amongst minority ethnic graduates than White graduates. Although unemployment went up for some minority ethnic graduates, almost all groups saw an increase in employment in graduate-level jobs, and this growth was particularly prominent amongst certain minority ethnic groups. There were also signs that minority ethnic graduates were becoming more successful in entering management level occupations.

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Further information

Destinations of 2005/06 graduates by ethnic groups can be found in the report What Happens Next? A Report on Ethnicity and the First Destinations of Graduates 2006, AGCAS Race Equality Task Group, May 2008. www.agcas.org.uk

Reference

1. What do graduates do – regional, Charlie Ball, Graduate Market Trends, Spring 2008.

2. More information about Seven Years On can be found at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/completed/7yrs2/. For information on the graduate job classifications, see SOC(HE): a classification of occupations for studying the graduate labour market, available on the same page.

Content last updated: October 2008